Seungju became disturbed. He moved his fingers to read the messages in order this time. Most were content like “get home safely,” “why aren’t you answering your phone,” “have a good weekend.” Fortunately, it seemed he hadn’t done anything weird at the first round.
Kang Jihye’s message was most helpful in reconstructing what happened last night.
[Team Leader~! I’m so sorry for making you drink so much today~~ But thank you for receiving it!! And it seems you got close with General Manager Mu lol jealous… But I’m not jealous of the company dinner second round lol I hope you drank moderately and got home safely~~ Have a great weekend!]
So detailed. She must have felt bad about forcing him to drink so much yesterday. Anyway, this confirmed that he hadn’t dug himself into a hole like a crazy person at the first round where all the company people were gathered. Thank goodness.
Seungju finally checked the message from ‘Baek Muyeon’. Actually, even without opening the window, he could see all the content of the short message he sent.
[Did you get home safely? Contact me when you arrive.]
I see. Seungju, who had a blackout, must have collapsed on his bed and fallen asleep as soon as he arrived home. Since there was no contact, Muyeon must have called. That must be how the 2 AM call happened. Yeah, I see.
Though he still can’t remember at all how he got home.
Seungju put down his phone again and held his head with both hands. And started pulling at his hair. He absolutely cannot remember the second round with Baek Muyeon.
After washing up, Seungju replied to the backlog of messages. He ignored the replies to his replies. Having long conversations with company people on the weekend was unwelcome anyway.
Sitting at the hangover soup restaurant in front of his house, gloomily eating bean sprout hangover soup, Seungju thought about the last reply to send to Baek Muyeon. I caused you a lot of trouble yesterday, I’m sorry, I got home safely, have a good weekend…
Seungju ended up sending only the last two sentences. As soon as he put down his phone, he was startled. Because the phone rang. A terrifyingly long name appeared on the phone screen. Sales Team General Manager Baek Muyeon.
Seungju answered the phone with a reluctant feeling.
“Yes, General Manager. This is Heo Seungju.”
– You seem a bit better now?
“Yes? Yes.”
Seungju was briefly flustered by the words that popped out as soon as he answered the phone.
– Seeing you answer so politely, it seems the alcohol has completely worn off.
“Did I… perhaps say something rude yesterday?”
Muyeon laughed. That laugh sounded ominous.
– You don’t remember?
“No…”
– Not at all?
Of course not “not at all.” There are parts he remembers. He just doesn’t want to believe them.
“No… I’m sorry.”
– What do you have to be sorry about, it’s Seungju’s loss.
What exactly is my loss? Really scary. Tears flowed in Seungju’s heart. Leaving Seungju unable to answer, Muyeon laughed again from the other end of the phone.
– Still, I’m glad it seems you got home safely. It’s the weekend, so rest for now. See you at the office.
The call hung up abruptly. Seungju looked down at his phone screen once. If you say that and hang up, do you think I can rest comfortably?
Seungju stayed cooped up at home all weekend. His physical condition wasn’t good. Thanks to drinking soju, beer, and finally liquor at the end, hellish hangover visited him for the first time in a while.
However, what made Seungju’s condition bad was more a mental problem than a physical one. He repeatedly thought about the lines he remembered in fragments.
General Manager Mu is interested in me?
No matter how he thought about it, it was ridiculous. It made no sense. What would happen if something he never imagined would happen suddenly dropped in front of him? Seungju hadn’t expected that he would be so stupidly unable to react at all.
This won’t do. Later when I win the lottery, I need to keep my wits about me and act quickly.
Since he thought of it, Seungju went to the convenience store to buy dinner and also bought lottery tickets. Five automatic ones. While at it, he also bought pension lottery tickets. Putting the lottery tickets in his wallet, he thought. If I win, I’ll quit the company and go traveling.
While spacing out, the weekend flew by like a shot. He lay in bed to sleep Sunday night, but sleep wouldn’t come. Seungju felt wronged. The weekend passed while he did nothing and fumbled around.
Thinking about going to work tomorrow and seeing General Manager Mu’s face made him sigh.
Honestly speaking, it wasn’t that he disliked it. No, rather he liked it. Just seeing his face made him smile, and sitting across from him and talking made his heart flutter.
Seungju knew well what that was. Certain signs that needed no doubt.
A song about “some-tagging” or something briefly sounded in his ears. Seungju snorted to blow those songs away. And thought again about the reaction he immediately showed when he heard Muyeon’s words. Denial of reality.
He couldn’t help it. When all is said and done, wasn’t that the right reaction? Getting entangled with a superior? Just thinking about it already made him tired.
Seungju tossed and turned while rolling around the unanswerable problem in his head. In the end, having no stamina at all, he became exhausted while thinking and lying down. The rationalization that had comforted him before came.
Yeah, if he’s interested, that’s a good thing. So what if there’s some flirting? Does that mean everyone dates?
One of the few advantages the company brought him activated quickly. Don’t think deeply. He quickly forgot the unanswerable problem and fell asleep.
***
How should I treat General Manager Mu when I run into him right away on Monday?
Seungju’s worry was rather useless. After coming to work, he neither ran into Muyeon nor had a conversation. From Monday morning, he was busy to death. In the storm of handovers that swept through the Planning Division.
Planning Team 3’s Team Leader Kim Jeonghyeon entrusted the handover responsibility for dolls and toys transferred from Seungju’s Team 6 to the youngest, Song Junhyeong. Seungju was dumbfounded. Toy category products aren’t simple projects that can be entrusted to the youngest. Even a person in charge with as many years of experience as Seungju worked in tears for the past three months.
To entrust that to the team’s youngest. He’d heard plenty about Team Leader Kim’s bad reputation for resembling the Director, but experiencing it directly was truly shitty. Of course, he’d also heard rumors that Team 3’s youngest wasn’t a sharp guy. Even so, throwing work at someone like this telling them to go screw themselves was too much.
Moreover, when Seungju set up a meeting schedule for the handover, Team Leader Kim slipped out saying he had other schedules. “Junhyeong, you listen properly and report to me later.” Even Seungju listening from the side was appalled. As expected, Song Junhyeong’s expression wasn’t good either.
However, Seungju’s thoughts after the handover had changed drastically.
There’s a limit to not understanding what you’re told. The assessment that he wasn’t a sharp guy was clearly a very careful evaluation. Seungju first thought about who the hell put together such a terrible superior and such an incompetent employee for what purpose. Of course, since everything is always a problem arising from this company’s fundamentally flawed foundation, he tried to find causes other than structural parts.
But when he explained the sample confirmation process 5 times and gave warnings about KC for the 10th time, Seungju made a serious face. What was even more infuriating was the fact that despite Seungju being furious to the tips of his hair, Junhyeong didn’t seem to understand properly. Moreover, he seemed not to know that Seungju was angry.
Can’t work and has no sense either? A thousand fires blazed inside Seungju. He wanted to give him a piece of his mind right away. However, with the conviction that he couldn’t become a person like the Director or Team Leader Kim, he extinguished all that fire.
The handover didn’t end with that. Seungju received one by one the paper goods projects scattered across this team and that team. There were many projects but Seungju’s body was one, so progress was sluggish.
Team Leader Choi from Team 4, whom he briefly ran into in front of the break room, even expressed displeasure about the slow handover in that short moment. Seungju tried to calm his boiling insides in front of him. It’s not my fault that my team has only me as a team member.
Thursday morning, Seungju was in a bad mood. Because of thinking about going off-site in the afternoon. When I’m this busy, where the hell am I supposed to go? He might inevitably have to work overtime on Friday.
Chugging coffee from the morning, Seungju slumped his shoulders. I wish I were the kind of person who doesn’t think about overtime and throws down work like a knife when work hours pass. At least if I had the guts to go to the President’s son and say I can’t go off-site because work is busy.
But Seungju had been conditioned by the company into a person who couldn’t do either. And even if Seungju had been a free soul not conditioned, the latter option would probably have been difficult to choose anyway.
Seungju still couldn’t be calm about what happened last weekend. As if running into General Manager Mu shamelessly last week was a dream, Seungju avoided him well. The afternoon off-site work was as unwelcome as a cow being sold to the market.
When lunchtime approached, the phone rang. Seungju quickly reached out and answered the phone like a machine. The foul-tempered Director always gave looks if the phone rang long near his seat. So even when answering one phone call, Seungju cursed the Director in his heart. Old-fashioned bastard.
“Yes, this is Heo Seungju from Planning Team 6.”
– This is Baek Muyeon.
Seungju squeezed his eyes shut in his heart. What was coming has come. He answered with a reluctant voice.
“Yes, yes… General Manager.”
At the words that came out of Seungju’s mouth, he felt the Director looking at him. An unwanted call plus the Director’s scrutiny. What a great thing. Seungju rolled his eyes while pretending to be fine.
